Flickering Night, Kaleidoscopic Sky - A Touhou Christmas Special
by Equile
Summary: Celebration has been a part of human culture as the seasons change. From a simple birthday celebration, to a grand festival thanking the gods for a prosperous year and may the following years be even more prosperous. And so much as man loves to celebrate these special occasions, so much more are the other creatures. They love nothing more than to have a reason to celebrate.


Gensokyo, a land of dream and fantasy. A land where fantastic creatures such as youkai, fairies and gods co-exist with humans under a law called the Spellcard rule. This rule gives man a chance to defend himself without having casualties on either side.

However, though most of these creatures live harmoniously with the humans, especially those who have transcended from savagery, there are those who are still pose as a threat to man.

And so there are those who practice special arts of subduing these creatures. Passed down from generation to generation, it is the duty of the Hakurei shrine maiden, the Wonderful Maiden of Paradise, to subdue and seal away the creatures who threatens Gensokyo.

For some reason, more people, even the creatures of fantasy, are encouraged to protect this land they now call their home.

This also led Hakurei Reimu, the current maiden of the Hakurei shrine, to gain friends which are mostly non-humans.

Celebration has been a part of human culture as the seasons change. From a simple birthday celebration, to a grand festival thanking the gods for a prosperous year and may the following years be even more prosperous. And so much as man loves to celebrate these special occasions, so much more are the other creatures. They love nothing more than to have a reason to celebrate.

And so, this season of thanks giving, a lot have gathered at the Hakurei shrine to celebrate Christmas and the upcoming end of the year and welcome a new one. Even though it was one night early before Christmas eve. They just love long party nights, I guess.

But we will be leaving that place of celebration and go to a somewhere I am sure you are much more familiar with. A place which you may have visited for a million times already. A place where you know every corner, every inch, every nook and cranny, every secret it has. You've been welcomed there several times. Possibly even spent a night or two. You've sneaked into it, seen crazy things inside its walls, watched it destroyed down into nothing but rubble, and witness as it was restored in one piece. You don't even need to guess where we are headed. If you do, oh, come on! You can't be serious.

By the way, you do realize that everything written above was just for the sake of making this story longer, right? Ha!

Well, here we are. Again. In front of its sturdy menacing gates. We see no one around so let me, just this once, welcome you once again, to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Currently, its master along with her magician friend, her loyal maid, the resident devil librarian, and the gardener/gate guard, went to the Hakurei Shrine to take part on the on going celebration. The fairy maids are also not around given that they do not exactly belong to the mansion and just wanted a place to stay. They left the mansion and had their own celebration within the Forest of Magic, or elsewhere.

We proceed inside and walk its long majestic hallway and headed towards the library. Inside the library we see towering book cases and astronomical instruments. We walk past it and finds a doorway headed below the mansion. It would take us long until we reach the bottom if we continue walking along this zig zaging stairs, so we head straight down and find another door slightly open.

Silently, we peek inside and see if our little magical girl is inside. Hopefully, she wouldn't be peeking too or we would be staring straight at her bright red eye. Come on now, take a peek. We look inside and found... no one. Slowly, we open the door. Nobody's here. The room is very neat. Everything looks normal, as if a normal little girl lives in this room. But the person we are looking for is not here.

Hmmm... We look around the room. Under the bed, inside the closet. behind the door, nothing. There's another door on the far back of the room. Oh never mind, it's the toilet. We look above because she's probably hanging on the ceiling. There's still no one there.

I'm curious. Where could she have gone to? We zoom out past the floors, walls and everything else and went outside. Looking at everyplace, every corner, everywhere! Still she's no where to be found.

We went inside the mansion once again to check the places we've missed. She's probably in her sister's room. Or somewhere else on the second floor. Why don't you check the room while I go check the other places? Wait! What's that sound? Something, or someone seems to be on the far end of the hallway. Let's go.

We move swiftly down the halls, making a few turns as to where the sound seems to have come from. Up ahead, we see the grand ballroom well lighted and the tables and chairs are properly arranged. And we also see the Devil's little sister, Flandre Scarlet, hovering over one of the tables and she seems stressed over the placement of the table wares.

She's dressed in her normal clothing except for her cap which is replaced by a red Santa hat.

"I guess that's fine?" Though she seems unsatisfied, the effort she did in fixing the tables is preventing her from starting over. She turns to look at the time in the old pendulum clock. It's already nine in the evening. "I still have a lot of time. Let's see, if I place it about 3 or 4 centimeters higher..."

"Ah! Sorry! Am I late?" A girl wearing a black dress named Nue Houjuu came rushing from the window while riding a UFO. "I'm here now! No need to worry."

"You came three hours early!" Flandre cried out, noting her surprise with her guest to be very early.

"Oh, I did?" She looks at the clock and looked back to her friend. "Sorry, I left the moment Hijiri and the others left the temple. I thought it was time for me to go too, so I did. And also, we don't have one of those inside the temple." She said pointing at the clock.

Flandre just waved off her hand. "Never mind that now. Could you help me-"

"Hello~!" Another girl wearing a bright green shirt and has a brimmed hat suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Koishi Komeiji hovered slowly to Flandre and gave her friend a gentle hug.

"Koishi, not you too" Flandre said as her plans for the night to surprise her friends seem to have crumbled. "Why did you guys came here early? I'm not even done with the preparations yet!"

"Oh, I am? I have no idea. You see, I left as soon as..."

"Everyone in you home have gone to Reimu's house. Yes, I get it." Flandre said even before Koishi can even finish her sentence.

"Hmm... Close. But not quite. You see, I left when I saw Nue-chan left the temple. So I followed her here." Koishi explained.

"Wait, wait. You... Followed me here?" Nue said to her surprise. "How? Can you see me from the underground?"

"Hmm~? No. I'm also waiting at the temple. And we also don't have that numbered thing..."

"It's a clock." Flandre interrupted.

"Yeah... That. So I assume it's already time for me to go too!" Koishi continued.

Nue looked at Flandre who was at the moment very disappointed with her friends. Well, she can't just stay like that all night. There's still a lot of things to do!

"Come on now you two." She said to her friends. "Let's get this done already before Suwako-chan arrives."

The two are more than willing to help out but everything seems done that they have nothing else to do.

"So, uh, what are we supposed to do? Everything seems done already." Nue voiced out. Flandre stopped for a moment and looked around. She noticed that her friend was right. What shall they do now?

"Huh... You're right. Oh, wait! Dinner! Let's cook dinner!"

"Didn't you have a maid to do that?" Nue asked again.

"We do. But this party is a secret. So she only prepared my dinner. Come now you two. Let's prepare our dinner!"

"I'll just help you out. I know nothing about cooking." Nue raised both her hands as if surrendering.

"O~K." Flandre paused for a bit clicking her tongue while in deep thought. Then she looked at Koishi.

"How about you, Koishi? Do you know how to cook?" She asked the other girl, where Koishi shook her head in response to say no.

"We also have someone prepare dinner for us." Koishi said.

"Well, that's a bit of a problem. None of us knows how to cook." Flandre said.

"How is it that we lived for hundreds of years yet none of us knows how to cook?" Nue said in mixed emotion of amazement and disappointment.

"Nah, don't mind that. We have cook books! How hard was it to cook?" Flandre encouraged her friends.

In the kitchen, the three girls are can be seen pretty busy preparing dinner. Each girl preparing her own food for dinner.

Flandre is stressing out once again for the proper measurement of each ingredient. "How much was it again? Let's see here. Flour... That is just... Right. It's perfect. Now, what else do I need? Vanilla extract. It's somewhere in here." She's emptying the cupboard looking for the single ingredient she needed that half of her body is already inside it. "It's not here. That's strange. Ah, Nue-chan."

"Yep?" Nue-chan responded without breaking attention on the dough in front of her.

"Can you help me find the vanilla extract? It should be somewhere- What are you doing?"

Surprised at the question, Nue stopped what she's doing and looked at her friend placing one hand on the table and the other on her hips "I'm making pizza!" She replied.

"Pizza? I thought we are all working on the cake." Flandre responded.

"Cake? I thought we are making Pizza all this time!" Nue answered back slamming her palm on the table.

"How many gallons of milk do we need for the ice cream again?" Koishi asked suddenly appearing between the two girls.

"Ice cream?" Flandre asked then paused for a bit to think about Koishi's decision. "That's not entirely a bad idea. Even though the temperature is freezing this time of the year, it doesn't really bother us, at least. But why gallons? How much do you plan to make?"

"A lot!" Koishi answered in full Koishi energy.

"But wait. We should all work on this cake first. I really like it to be a special cake for all of us. And what makes it more special than all of us making it? Customizable to as how we see fit. What do you guys think?" Flandre said.

"Ah! That's not fair! Now I want my pizza to be something like that too!" Nue protested.

"Me too! Me too! Any syrup of your choice! As much as you want!" Koishi added.

So much disagreements and arguments happened in the next few minutes between the girls. Well, between Flandre and Nue that is. Koishi seems to just speak her mind out loud even if they are irrelevant to the subject.

Flandre having enough of the arguments, thought that it should stop and they try to resolve this issue as soon as possible. "Alright! Let's try something else other than this non-nonsensical arguments. We won't finish anything if we stay like this. Can we agree on that?"

The two having no other option in mind, nodded in agreement.

"Ok, first of all, I want you to know that I have no issues, whatsoever with the food you are trying to make. I think they are both great and everyone wants to make it special. So, I've decided that we are going to make everything." Flandre said.

"Don't tell me we're going to mash everything into one single recipe." Nue commented.

"That's a great idea! How should we name it? A mambo jumbo pile of flavors explosion! Hmm... Not that catchy." Koishi is seriously deep in thought about making a name for recipe.

Flandre is not really fond of the idea though and thought it was outright disgusting. She let out a nervous laugh before proceeding to her explanation. "That's very cute Koishi. But no. I decided that we will have a lottery. In three pieces of paper, we will write our names and then start with the lottery. Whoever name would be drawn first, we will work on her recipe first, and so on up to the last." Flandre explained.

"How can we make sure it's going to be fair?" Nue asked.

"I promise it's going to be fair. You can even do it if want to." Flandre answered.

"Yeah, that's fine with me and all. But how can we make sure you're not gonna do anything to make it fall in your favor?" Nue inquired further.

"What ever do you mean?" Flandre seemed confused to what Nue is trying to say.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure myself. What if you control fate and win the lottery?" Nue asked again.

"Fate? I don't control fate! Sure my sister claims to control it, but it's not proven. Not in over 400 years of my life. And even if she does, it's her ability, not mine." Flandre defended.

"Still, we are not sure if she does. And you're still her sister. What makes it impossible that you have a fragment of that ability? Even just a fragment of it could tip the balance." Nue continued to argue.

Flandre almost blinded by rage, can no longer control raising the tone of her voice and screamed before she spoke again. "Look! I am sure we do not possess such ability. It's going to be fair for everyone! Why can't you trust me?" Flandre, in her midst of anger, swung her fist and accidentally smashed the stove right next to her.

Everyone was frozen in their place for a moment until Koishi commented. "Oh, now that's not good."

Everyone went back to the ballroom slumped to their seat. All their effort of preparing their meal just went down the drain.

"So... What now?" Flandre asked breaking the silence.

"I don't know." Nue answered. "We don't really need food anyway. Let's just proceed to the next activity."

Her friend let out a groan in response. "But I prepared a lot for dinner."

"Yeah, I noticed." Nue moved her eyes to see the room and it kept bugging her. "Are the tables always done like it's going to have a party everyday? Because we only need one table."

"It would look out of place so I had to fix the others, too." Flandre explained. Not long after she said that, they felt someone coming towards them from the hallway. Not long after, Suwako Moriya, the Epitome of the Native gods, appeared.

"Hi, sorry! I know it's still 10 in the evening but I really have to get out of-" There was a moment of silence and everyone is staring at Suwako who seemed really confused at the moment. "Uh, everyone's already here?" Suwako asked.

"SUWAKO-CHA~N" The three girls suddenly jumped at her while crying.

"Whoa! What's going on here?"

They've explained everything to Suwako. Their plan to make dinner but failed.

"That's too bad." The girls groaned at Suwako's comment. "I really wish I can help you with anything." Suwako tried to think of some ways to cheer up the girls but the only thing that comes to her mind was to bring them to the Hakurei Shrine. "You know, it's not a bad idea if we go to the Hakurei shrine and enjoy ourselves there." She suggested.

Flandre let out a small laugh before responding "Right now, I'm willing to do anything."

"That kinda... Ruins it." Nue said. "This is supposed to be a party for just the four of us." Everyone's spirit went down again, thanks to her comment. "I'm really looking forward to it, too." She whispered.

Flandre was the first one to perk up, followed by Suwako then Koishi. "You're what?" she asked.

"Huh? N-nothing! I said nothing." Nue- replied nervously hiding her face to her friends.

"You're really excited about this, aren't you?" Koishi asked.

"NO! You got it-!"

"No need to be shy about it." Flandre interrupted her.

"I told you I'm not-!"

"Come'ere you guys! Group hug!" Suwako said. The other two girls suddenly pulled their friend and locked her inside their embrace.

"H-hey! Ok! I got it. We are so happy together! Now break it up!" Nue protested but to her disappointment, none of her friends obliged.

"Not until you become honest to us and to yourself." Suwako demanded. Their hug got a little tighter that it's becoming more uncomfortable for Nue.

"Alright already! This is the first and the worst party we've ever had, thanks to Fangs over here." That comment received a little chuckle from the young vampire. "It ruined my supposedly perfect evening!" Nue bursted out.

The girls let go of their hug but Koishi ran towards Nue and hugged her again. This got a smile from the black haired girl.

"I feel bad for ruining everyone's night. I wanted to it make up to you guys but I have no idea how." Flandre said.

"It's a really beautiful night." Koishi said while looking of the glass window as wide as a gate. "The sky is clear and full of stars."

"A clear night sky? On winter?" Flandre asked and also went to look outside the window. "You're right. It is beautiful."

"If only the ground isn't covered in snow. It would be nice to make a camp fire by the lake." Koishi added.

Suwako placed her hand on Koishi's shoulder to get her attention. "You know, that could be fixed." She said and looked at Flandre and gave her a wink. It got a mischievous smug from the young vampire as a reply.

Flandre covered her right fist with her left palm and with a grin she said, "Let's get started, girls."

The girls made a clearing by the side of the Misty Lake, thanks to Flandre and her Laevateinn to melt the ice and snow. They've started a camp fire and roasted some fish they got from the Mansion. Although they could have barbeque, the decided they would have fish instead. They even found some sweet potato in the storage and brought some to bake by the fire. They've also brought some drinks while they're on it. Heck, Suwako even made a small hole on the ice covered lake and made a fishing pole for ambiance. No marshmallow though.

The girls went telling stories, let out their frustrations, and merrily sang songs! They even went to check the fish pole from time to time and see if they somehow caught a fish or something. It's like this could go on forever. And even though it seems a lot has already happened, it's not even past midnight!

"You think there would be fishes swimming around the lake this time of the year?" Flandre asked.

"Dunno. They're probably hibernating." Suwako said.

"Hey! Somebody sing already! Koishi started dancing so somebody sing!" Nue ranted.

Flandre let out a sigh and walked up to the other two girls. "I'll do it." She said.

"No you don't! Your voice is annoying like a squeaking mice!" Nue said, clearly a bit drunk. "Suwako, you sing!" She cried out.

"Well I'm way better singer than you are." Flandre argued.

"Ha! You wish." Nue answered back.

Their argument went on while Suwako went to Koishi and sang for her while clapping her hands. Alcohol seems to be taking effect on the four girls.

Then they heard a rustling sound by the nearby bushes. Everyone stopped moving and snapped out of their drunken daze. Their eyes focused on the direction of the sound. Cold sweat started to roll down on the backs of their necks except for Koishi who's just waiting for it to happen.

Finally gotten to her senses, Flandre finally remembered she's a vampire and could literally destroy anything and everything. She moved forward a bit and let out a small sword made out of flames. "Who's there? Come out here this instant!" she commanded.

"Imouto-sama?" The voice was familiar that it made Flandre put out her sword. Out of the bushes, a tall red haired girl emerged with her notable green hat with a golden star. She's covered in a cloak, probably to keep her clothes being covered with snow.

Hong Meiling, the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gardener/gate guard, seemed relieved when she saw her young mistress to be alright. "I'm glad you're fine, young miss. When I got back to the mansion, nobody's home, so I went to check on you on your room. I got so worried when I can't find you anywhere." Meiling said almost crying. Flandre let out an awkward laugh.

"I almost flew back to the shrine and tell your sister that you're missing. Then I saw a camp fire by the lake, so I went here to check." She added.

"Then why didn't you just flew here directly?" Flandre asked.

"Well, I don't want anyone else to know that you are missing, so I tried to sneak up and see if you are here. If not, then I'll just silently sneak away and tell your sister." Meiling explained.

"Sadly you're sneaking skills is very poor." Flandre said in disappointment. "And you don't want others to know that I'm missing, but you plan to tell my sister? You know she likes to make a scene of even the smallest things." She said crossing her arms and raising a brow.

"Ehehe. I guess, there's that." Meiling said while scratching the back of her head.

Flandre let out a sigh and lightened up. "I'm sorry, Meiling. We didn't originally plan to camp out here." She said.

"Then we should head back to the mansion. Everyone's waiting for us there." Startling everyone, Remilia Scarlet, mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, appeared out of nowhere holding her notable pose of holding both of her hands together in front of her chest while hovering a few inches off the ground.

"Don't... Ever do that again." Flandre commented. "I almost blew you up to bits by reflex!"

Remilia let out a small chuckle before setting her feet on the ground and walked up to her sister. "Come now, dear sister. The same goes for everyone else." This got a bit of surprise from the three girls sitting by the camp fire. "Let's continue your party with everyone. Sakuya!"

"Yes, milady?" Out of nowhere, the Perfect and Elegant maid, Sakuya Izayoi, appeared beside her mistress with her head slightly bowed down.

"Please prepare a feast for everyone." Remilia requested.

"Of course, milady. It is currently being prepared as of the moment. Luckily, everyone from the shrine decided to continue their celebration in the mansion so I got help from everyone else." Sakuya said. "Oddly, the ballroom was already prepared by the time I arrived." She added.

This got a surprised look from Flandre. She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw that it was Nue who walked up to her. "I guess all of your efforts haven't gone to waste after all." Nue said.

Flandre suppressed her supposedly wide smile because of the insurmountable joy she felt but she still smiled a bit. "So it seems." She said, tears almost rolled out of her eyes.

"It is fated to happen." Remilia commented. This got a blank look from everyone else, except for Sakuya who already had a poker face from the start.

Flandre placed both of her hands on her hips and shook her head before giving a look at her sister with one brow raised. "Remilia..." She said in a clear stern voice. Remilia was taken by surprise that her sister suddenly calls her by her name. This also made everyone tense up, especially Meiling who's eyes almost burst out of their sockets and her jaw almost falling off. On the other hand, Sakuya still has a stone face. Flandre then smiled before continuing her sentence. "You are spouting non-sense again." Her sister is still dazed for a few seconds before she let out a few giggles. Flandre followed her giggling and hugged her sister. Meiling died. "Oh sis, what would I do without you?" She asked.

"You're going to be just fine, I'm sure." The older sister said.

"There's just been a bit of a problem but it has been taken care of." Sakuya interrupted. "The stove seemed to have been smashed by the time I came back. So we have to improvise." The four girls, especially the three culprits broke a nervous sweat and tried to explain, but all of them speaking at the same time didn't made sense at all.

"Ah! So you guys are here!" This comment came from the self-proclaimed Ordinary Magician, Marisa Kirisame flying down riding her broom and right behind her is the Wonderful Shrine Maiden of Paradise, Reimu Hakurei. "What's this? Having a private party out in the open while everyone else is inside the mansion?" The blonde magician asked, her words are a bit slurred.

"There nothing really interesting here, Marisa. Let's just head back." Reimu said.

"We are also on our way back." Remilia said and turned to face her sister and her friends. "Everyone, I invite you to our humble home." She said and took a bow in front of everyone.

Flandre turned around to look at her friends. Everyone seems ready to go. "Alright then. Everyone, let's pack everything and head back!"

Back in the mansion, the whole place was very loud and rowdy. Everyone is having a good time. A little bit of drunk fight but nothing big that an Oni can't handle. Unless it is the Onis who started the fight. But we look around and the four girls can't be found anywhere inside. Outside the mansion, we can find the four girls on the rooftop, sitting together by its fence while looking at the starry sky and letting their legs swing freely. They sat in a pattern they instinctively do, ordered as Flandre, Nue, Koishi and Suwako. "We should do this again some other time." Koishi said which got the attention of everyone.

Nue let out a snort and suppressed her laughter into a fit of giggling. "Maybe next time, we should make plans that we could possibly do by ourselves." She said.

"And by that time, I'm sure I could cook as good as Sakuya." Flandre said.

"No need to rush. We got a lot of time in the world." Suwako said.

The bell on the old tower rang which made the girls to look around and check the time. It's 12 in the midnight.

"It's just 12? I thought it's almost dawn!" Flandre said in surprise.

"Well, like I said. We got a lot of time." Suwako said and stood up to stretch her arms and back. "I guess we should head back inside already." she said as she hopped down from the fence to the rooftop platform.

"I guess we'll be visiting you tomorrow at your shrine before Christmas eve." Flandre said.

"Yeah, I guess. A lot of people and other beings are sure to visit tomorrow. Though I'm not sure how people got a grasp of celebrating Christmas here in Gensokyo. I guess we're not fully separated from the world." Suwako said.

"Mind you. Why is the Devil and her sister celebrating Christmas anyway? Isn't that a bit odd?" Nue asked.

"We are open-minded beings, my dear." Flandre answered in her most elegant tone.

"Yeah, right." Nue responded.

"Enough of that you two and let's all head back inside. I'm getting thirsty." And so the four girls walked inside the mansion and celebrate with everyone else.

As for us, it's time to leave. Though it's only been a short while and the party is still going, I'm afraid I still have things to attend to. Though if you want I can just leave you here. Well then, it's time for us to part ways. Happy Holidays to you.


End file.
